


Survival Without Recovery

by OneOfThoseThings



Series: Interspecies Compatibility [11]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Biology, Angst with a Happy Ending, Can be read as platonic but I personally ship TF out of these two, Dr Nyarlathotep, Dubious Moral Implications, Episode Fix-It: s04e13 Journey's End, Gen, Just read it its probably fine, Telepathy, The Doctor is not the hero of this story, Unfortunate Canon, Well an ambiguous ending, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23222299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneOfThoseThings/pseuds/OneOfThoseThings
Summary: Donna flies a bit too close to the sun and the Doctor does the only thing he can think of to keep her from burning.(Conclusion to the Interspecies Compatibility series, but can be read on its own as a general fix-it.)
Relationships: Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble
Series: Interspecies Compatibility [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637608
Comments: 42
Kudos: 139





	1. The Part We Know

**Author's Note:**

> Survival Without Recovery / Extinction Debt (ala Wikipedia): The future extinction of species due to events in the past… Extinction debt occurs because of time delays between impacts on a species, such as destruction of habitat, and the species' ultimate disappearance. For instance, long-lived trees may survive for many years even after reproduction of new trees has become impossible, and thus they may be committed to extinction.

Donna Noble was well and truly brilliant. Not just confident. Not just sure she was right. She _knew_ in every fibre of her being that she was genuinely destined for something great. And with all the knowledge in the universe packed into her brain, she knew just as well that her time was _now_. 

In the nanoseconds it took to form a thought, her hands already knew how to execute it. Alien displays lit up like play-along-pianos. Daleks were no more threatening than toy tops. A reality bomb was as easy to dismantle as a dandelion. All of existence was an eleven dimensional harp, and Donna suddenly knew how to play better than anyone. 

She beamed at the Doctor, who loomed larger than his frame, something far older than physical form, compressed into three dimensions. She’d noticed it before, but out of the corner of her eye, in the brief moment before fully turning. The only time she'd caught it full-on was that first time she'd made a complete connection, but she'd forced herself to forget. Now the tricks of light were so, so real and she realized she’d been standing alongside a celestial giant.

Not that it mattered. She’d swallowed her own star now, and they were one and the same.

The Doctor looked back at her with wide eyes and it was hard to read his expression with all these new senses. Time swirled around him in great magnetic waves, arching far and wide only to circle back, drawn to the center. Her best friend glowed bright and beautiful, and she couldn’t imagine a world in which he wouldn’t be thrilled about it. 

Time moved through his duplicate as well, in a strange mirrored display, looped much more tightly, but expanding with every breath. She could feel it moving within herself if she focused, and then even if she didn’t. It should have been dizzying, maddening, but it was _fantastic_. 

Donna laughed and danced her way around the console, fascinated by every twist and turn of each new sense. Martha was wreathed in promise so crystallized she could taste it. Jack was impossibly solid― a jarring fixture against the ever-shifting backdrop of reality― and it nearly hurt to hug him, but she hugged him anyway. Rose shone bright and gleeful and the Doctor followed her like a great archaic moth, drawn inexorably to the light. 

Something vast and ancient sang beneath her feet and through her bones and Donna realized she could glimpse the presence she had only dreamt of previously. The TARDIS stretched across time, endless and forever. And in the massive, looming void where everything existed simultaneously and nothing ever truly died, colossal eyes stared back, seeing Donna for everything she was and would be. And she _sang_.

The Duplicate Doctor jostled her, laughing, and Donna laughed with him because everything was golden and bubbly and beautiful and she’d never felt joy like this. 

The Doctor dropped off his friends and turned to his long lost love. Donna watched him circle his Rose and felt a pang of something, but she’d always known _that_ , and there were so many new things to know now.

The timelines shifted, breaking around the four of them, and branching off like a great river delta. The tides tightened around the Duplicate, pulling him toward the parallel plane, and Donna could tell he wouldn’t fight it. The currents swept Rose with him, and there were so many field lines looped between them that it was hardly surprising she didn’t seem to notice.

The other humans wavered in her vision, like they were already ghosts, already dust, and Donna saw them as the Doctor saw them― afterimages before they’d even flashed. The Duplicate wavered the same way and it hurt just to look at her friend’s face on such a fragile facsimile.

On the tail end of that realization, she knew the Doctor couldn’t bear to watch his precious Rose wither, and he’d run from her to avoid it at any cost. 

When the TARDIS doors closed on the parallel world they severed so many threads that the fabric of reality tore, just a little. The TARDIS slipped through the gap, filling the void, and the currents flowed once more. 

The Doctor lingered by the coral, bowed down by the tides, and Donna tried to give him space, but couldn’t quite make herself leave. She split the difference by flicking switches and twisting dials that had seemed so random before and now couldn’t be clearer if they stood up and shouted their purpose. The TARDIS harmonized, guiding her hands through the steps while the secrets of the universe packed themselves into her brain so tightly that they pressed impressions into the inside of her skull.

Donna realized she could feel her own mind expanding. She could feel barriers falling away, revealing false walls hiding infinite space, like the inside of the Doctor’s mind. The boundaries disappeared between planes, and the rapidly firing synapses sparked endless chain reactions. Each new plasmatic arc bred hundreds― millions― more, and the waves of potential flowed through each new connection, never lessening, never wavering. 

Just beneath the surface― or was it within?― a universe of knowledge bloomed. Foreign lands and glorious history ―or was it future?― spread out for her choosing and it was all as easy to recall as remembering her own name.

“I thought we could try the planet Felspoon,” Donna said to the Doctor. Though… was that the right verb tense? She tried to remember, even as her mouth continued the thought. Was it future tense? Or had they already done it? She could see it so clearly…

Her mouth tripped on a word, skipping like a record, and she had to refocus. “I’m fine!”

The TARDIS stroked through her thoughts with the care of something impossibly large soothing something tiny and delicate; a star focused down to a sunbeam, warming an insect’s wings. 

Donna smiled, twirling to a new topic. “You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin.”

The Doctor approached slowly, looking strange and solemn, but it was so hard to remember what he was supposed to look like with so many dimensions to consider. 

The myriad connections firing in her mind suddenly sparked, like they’d hit a pocket of pure hydrogen. The lightning field turned supernova. 

“Friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton―“ she cut herself off, gasping, but the first spark had been lit. “Oh my God!” She doubled over and the Doctor was there, blurred at the edges. 

She was speaking and he was speaking, but if she just _focused_ , she could hold the firestorm suspended, between one breath and the next.

“I want to stay,” she begged. 

The Doctor looked at her with dark, sad eyes that took in light and reflected nothing. 

The TARDIS crooned and tried to soothe her, but she was no more solid than a thundercloud, the density creating a temporary sense of shape. 

“Look at me. Donna, look at me.” The Doctor came closer, cornering her by the jumpseat, and ley lines jumped into sharp relief, painting a horrifying picture. She realized his intent just a moment too late. 

“Oh my God, I can't go back,” she railed against the currents, “Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back!”

He’d do it. She knew he would. He’d take any option that wouldn’t kill her and there was nothing she could do to stop him. The knowledge bled the blackest pain, in the space where her second heart should be. 

“Oh, Donna Noble. I am so sorry.” All the misery in the universe welled behind his eyes, but the hands that moved toward her were frighteningly stable. 

“No, no, no― Please― Please! No! No!!” Donna begged, grasping for hope that slipped through her fingers like stardust. 

The TARDIS flared up in alarm, but it was already too late. His fingers hit her contact points and taking it all was as easy as picking petals from a flower.

Donna could feel him in her mind, clinical and detached and heartbreakingly gentle. She had no hope of hiding anything; he knew the landscape all too well. He grimly bricked her in, pulling all traces of anything worth knowing behind the barriers. 

She considered releasing her hold on the firestorm, letting it tear its way through her before he could lock it away, but she couldn’t be sure that it wouldn’t take him as well. 

All the knowledge in the universe couldn’t override her own sense memory of how he clutched her close like she was the only warm thing he’d felt in centuries. Her hands caught at his sleeves, but she couldn’t even bring herself to push him away. 

The TARDIS keened and she hoped the great celestial being wouldn’t forget her as the walls slammed closed and everything she’d ever cared about was ripped out of her reach.

Donna dropped unconscious, and neither she nor the Doctor noticed the side panel that clicked quietly open, sliding a fob watch into her pocket. 


	2. The Part We Suspect

Donna Noble lived a strange life. 

She couldn’t quite put her finger on what was strange about it, but she had the constant feeling that it was… slightly off. Like looking through glasses with the wrong prescription lenses. 

The day after all her friends suddenly went a bit mad and then just as suddenly stopped talking about it, Donna was surprised to find a fob watch in her coat. She didn’t remember ever looking twice at a pocket watch, much less deciding to buy one and carry it around. But there was something very soothing about it. When she held it in her palm she could swear she heard something vast and ancient singing.

She put it on her vanity while she showered and when she got dressed she put the funny little watch back in her pocket because it just felt like something she wanted to do. 

Like so many things lately, she couldn’t think of any reason to question it.

* * *

Donna operated on the standard circuit― going to work and heading home, with standard breaks like drinks with friends and the occasional date. But she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she was following a script written for someone else. 

Everything seemed dull. Her eyes hurt sometimes, like the light was too low, and she had the strangest urge to stare directly at the sun just to drink in starlight. 

She took to absently rubbing at the fob watch in her pocket as a self-soothing reflex. It seemed to help somehow. The odd, looping grooves tingled against the pads of her fingertips.

* * *

Veena suggested a spa day to relax, but the thought made her so anxious she could barely sleep. She lay in her bed, clutching the watch and tried to focus on the faint sound of singing that always seemed to be just out of range.

* * *

She met a man named Shaun with kind brown eyes and slightly cold hands, due to poor circulation. He didn’t mind that sometimes she tried to ruffle hair that wouldn’t ruffle or bumped into his chest because she forgot how large it was. He was a dreamer and a pacifist, and he somehow found it charming that she kept getting fired for whistleblowing.

* * *

The strange urges kept up. The day after a heavy snowfall, she called in sick to go to the aquarium just to stare at octopi for hours. When Shaun came to pick her up, he asked what she was doing and all she could think to say was that the tentacles didn’t look right.

* * *

Donna dreamed of celestial bodies that held her close, whispering that she was brilliant and loved and destined for such great things. 

Shaun stroked her hair with cool fingers and didn’t comment on the watch she kept under her pillow.

* * *

Nearly two years after the mysterious accident, Donna was walking by a library running an Agatha Christie promotion and a bee nearly flew into her on its way to a bush. 

Her pocket watch felt strangely warm and then white hot. The burning somehow felt like singing. 

Her ears popped, her stomach flipped, and something in her mind pulled taut and snapped back into place. 

And just like that, Donna remembered. 

A universe of knowledge flooded into her newly renovated brain and one crystal clear thought pierced through. 

“Oh, I am going to _kill_ him!” 


	3. The Part That Takes Some Liberties

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: I've never actually watched Torchwood so the following references could be wildly inaccurate. I did some minimal Googling for basics, but didn't exactly treat it like a research project. Apologies in advance.

Donna took the first train to Cardiff and was stalking across Roald Dahl Plass in a matter of hours, but every second itched because she knew she should have been able to make it in a matter of seconds. If only a certain idiot alien hadn’t ditched her by the side of the road without checking for signs of life first…

She stomped into the tourist information desk, startling a young man in a suit behind the false panels. _Ianto Jones_ ― she remembered him from the small screen on the last real day of her life. 

A flash of recognition lit his features before he stifled it, affecting a politely blank demeanor. 

The Doctor must have sent a memo. The git. 

“I need to see Jack Harkness,” she informed him.

“Ah,” Ianto hemmed, “I’m afraid you must have the wrong― What are you doing?” 

She flipped open the access panel hidden under a false mug. “I just told you,” she said. “I need to see Jack.” The panel required an access code, but the Doctor had several stored away in his memories. She started tapping through sequences and the second one released the hydraulics. “Your perception filter’s faltering on the northwest corner,” she said, over her shoulder on the way to the lift, “Might want to take a look at it.” 

She was halfway down the corridor when the alarms went off, but she disabled those easily enough. It didn’t help her headache, but she was beginning to think that might be a permanent fixture at this point. 

Two guns greeted her when the doors swished open. The other woman from the vidscreen was behind one ― _Gwen Cooper_ ― and Jack Harkness was right beside her. 

“Jack!” Donna greeted him, “I need your vortex manipulator.” 

Two pairs of blue eyes blinked at her in increasing levels of confusion, but the guns lowered. 

Jack recovered first, slapping on a broad, charming smile. “I’m sorry, beautiful, but I think you’re in the wrong―“ 

“Oh, shut it!” Donna cut him off, “It didn’t work. I remember everything. That skinny idiot is just as bad at mindwipes as he is at everything else―“ She tried to push past him, but collided with his very solid chest instead. “Oof! You’re a big boy, aren’t you?”

Jack caught her shoulders. “ _What_ do you remember?” 

Donna tried not to squint against the oddly sharp lines he cast. “You’re Captain Jack Harkness. You used to travel with the Doctor, but he abandoned you when you became immortal. (Typical.) This is Torchwood Three, where you work with Gwen Cooper,“ she inclined her head toward the Welsh woman, “And Ianto Jones, who is probably working his way down the fire escape right about now… You helped us save the universe and tow the earth back from the Medusa Cascade. Would you like me to tell you more about yourself? A list of which devices the Doctor has stolen from you or disabled? Perhaps a highlight reel of the various risqué exploits he’s aware of?” 

Jack cleared his throat, subtly angling himself between Gwen and Donna. “That’s plenty, thanks.” He stepped back in the same motion, sweeping an arm out in invitation. “Shall we step into my office?” 

Donna looked him up and down, pausing pointedly at his left wrist, but walked past, heading straight for his bunker. 

Jack’s steps faltered, but picked up again without questioning how she knew where she was going. The Doctor hadn’t ever officially visited the Hub, but she was far beyond keeping his secrets at the moment.

“Vortex manipulator,” she reminded Jack, as soon as the hatch was closed. 

“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” he said, walking around her and sitting on a low couch. She noticed he hadn’t turned his back once. “If you know all that other stuff, then you know it’s broken.”

“Know how to fix it too,” she said, sitting next to him and putting a hand out. 

He eyed the hand. “He said you couldn’t remember. That your mind would burn.” 

Donna rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, he’s a bit melodramatic, isn’t he? You know how he likes a good sulk.” 

Jack snorted and looked surprised at himself. “He’s not usually wrong, though…”

Donna shifted around just enough to pull the fob watch halfway out of her pocket. 

Jack recognized it immediately. “That’s― I thought those turned Time Lords into humans, not the other way around…?” 

“Well, they take in energy. Usually Time Lord. This time it’s packed with pure Artron energy. Radiating just enough to alter the hardware to match the new software.” She pushed the watch back into her pocket, still feeling the telltale tingling in her fingertips. 

Jack looked a bit worried, which seemed a bit strange considering that he was the only person who definitively couldn’t be killed by Artron energy radiation. 

“It’s fine,” she said, “She was very careful with the levels. Well…" She flexed her tingling fingers. "Careful enough.” 

He looked her up and down. “And you’re… okay…?” 

She laughed outright. “Oh, no, I’m madder than a hornet nest on fire, but I’ve got a plan for that.”

Jack was still stealing nervous glances at her pocket. “Oh?”

“I’m going to slap the hell out of the idiot alien who took my memories and left me in flipping Chiswick like an overgrown stray. But first I have to find him. Hence―“ She looked pointedly at his wrist, flexing her outstretched fingers. 

Jack flicked a skeptical look between her hand and face. “Is that your _whole_ plan?” 

Donna shrugged. “Well, you know what they say about over-preparing.” 

Jack barked out a laugh, looking surprised again. “You know, we haven’t even really been properly introduced. Could I interest you in some recreational activities while you’re here?” He arched his perfect brows up invitingly. 

Donna looked him over. A couple of times. And then once more to be safe. She reluctantly decided she was too annoyed to enjoy herself properly. “Ask me again when I come back,” she said. 

Jack’s brows quirked, but he miraculously began unhooking his wristband. “And, if I were to loan you this ―which I haven’t agreed to yet, by the way― when do you imagine you might bring it back?” 

Donna cocked her head. “Within the hour.” 

He stopped unbuckling and she remembered how casually the Doctor lied to all his companions, most of all this one. 

“Within a day,” she corrected. 

He resumed unbuckling. 

When he pulled the band loose he paused, cradling the device. “Not sure why I’m going along with this…”

“We both know why,” Donna said and he looked up sharply. She carefully softened her features. “...So we don’t need to say it out loud, do we?” 

Jack gave her an enigmatic look, but held the band out. 

She upended it between them on the couch, pulled out a small, regrettably-non-sonic screwdriver, and started digging through wiring. “Don’t suppose you still have your TARDIS key…?” she asked casually. 

Jack didn’t answer right away and when she flicked a glance up he looked like she’d just asked him to hand over his last working lung. 

“Never mind,” she said. “Probably tacky to use someone else’s key, isn’t it? I’m sure she’ll let me in.” She slid the manipulator onto her wrist, punching commands in, while she reconnected everything. A few final taps and it fired up, ready to go. 

She keyed in an algorithm to track huon particles, but paused before executing, looking up at Jack. 

He looked surprised by the attention, but covered it almost immediately with a jaunty grin. “Rethinking that recreational offer?” 

She ignored that, looking him over and forcing herself not to recoil from the sensory overload. With great effort, she tamped down the offended receptors, until she could see him for what he was― a man who had been cursed and then cast aside for it. 

“I have the Doctor’s memories, you know.”

He nodded, slowly, looking a bit vulnerable. 

Donna offered him a small smile. “The Doctor might never tell you this, but you’re a good man, Jack Harkness. You haven’t been cast out; you’ve been set free.” 

Jack looked at her with impossibly ancient eyes that seemed completely disconnected from his Hollywood good looks. “You don’t have to say that.”

She sat up a little straighter, raising her chin. “You deserve to know.” 

She let that settle in for a few moments and then turned her attention back to the vortex manipulator. “Speaking of things that are deserved, I owe a rinky-dink praying mantis in pinstripes a smack and a bit of a shout. Best get on that, before he up and kills himself first. I’ll have this back to you in a week.”

Jack’s eyes flicked up. “You said a day.”

Donna shrugged. “It’ll be under a month. You’re an immortal sitting on a dimensional rift. You’re hell on the nav.” 

She punched in the command and let the vortex carry her home. 


End file.
